Safety Harbor approves midyear budget amendment to cover audits, grants and storm recovery costs

The City Commission on May 19 adopted Resolution 2025-04, a midyear amendment to the fiscal year 2025 budget, to appropriate reserves across multiple funds for audit completion, grant work, lobbyist services and storm recovery.

Finance Director Victoria Gilley presented the amendment as a midyear true-up that accounts for delayed prior-year audits, newly approved grant activity, and unanticipated storm recovery costs. Gilley said the general fund requires additional appropriations for accounting and consulting services, non-government grant expenditures, lobbyist services and storm-recovery expenses tied to recent storms. That storm-recovery amount includes an increase to cover pier and marina rebuild costs that staff later requested be transferred from the stabilization reserve.

The amendment also appropriates reserves in the stormwater fund for equipment and auditing, capital projects funds for HVAC and vehicles, and water and sewer funds to correct an oversight in the transfer to the renewal and replacement fund. Gilley said the transfers reconcile budgeted versus actual timing and costs and that some costs relate to projects approved in prior years.

The commission voted to adopt the resolution 5-0.

What happens next: City finance staff will implement the budget adjustments and track expenditures and any reimbursements related to storm recovery; staff will report on audit completion and grant expenditures per standard reporting cycles.